Hair stylists have historically used two different types of scissors to cut and style hair. Thinning scissors are typically employed with people having thick or dense hair to "thin out" or reduce the density of hair in one or more areas along the scalp which allows the remaining hair to more readily lie in the desired position. Scissors of this type include cooperating cutting blades wherein one of the blades is formed with serrations along its length. The other type of scissors typically employed in hair styling operations is the standard cutting scissors in which two cooperating cutting blades slidably engage one another with the hair therebetween to cut the hair to length.
Thinning scissors and cutting scissors are often used sequentially in a hair styling operation, typically to first thin the hair and then cut it to length. These two separate operations lengthen the time required to style the hair of an individual, which, in turn, reduces the total number of customers a stylist can accommodate in a given time period.
It is believed that some stylists have attempted to perform the hair thinning and hair cutting operations simultaneously in order to speed up the styling operation. This has been accomplished by grasping the finger rings of a thinning scissors and a cutting scissors, so that they are oriented parallel to one another, and then attempting to manipulate both scissors simultaneously to thin and cut the hair at the same time. Unfortunately, it has proven extremely difficult to control two independent scissors by grasping them at their fingers rings and opening and closing them simultaneously. The scissors tend to slide relative to one another, and the stylist has great difficulty in controlling their movement. As a result, the thinning and cutting operations must be performed slowly to avoid error, and little if any time savings is realized.
In order to avoid relative movement between thinning scissors and cutting scissors used simultaneously, it is also known to essentially permanently interconnect such scissors at a common pivot point so they can be manipulated in tandem. Although this arrangement enhances control of the two scissors by the stylist, the scissors cannot be readily disconnected from one another for cleaning, for use separately and/or to substitute one type of thinning scissors for another.